Principal Power signs contract with ERM for wind-to-hydrogen project

Floating offshore wind technology provider Principal Power has signed a contract with ERM to advance the front-end engineering design (FEED) for a wind-to-hydrogen Dolphyn 10 MW demonstrator project off the coast of Aberdeen.

ERM Dolphyn (deepwater offshore local production of hydrogen) has developed a concept design to produce large-scale green hydrogen from floating offshore wind. The concept employs a modular design integrating electrolysis and a wind turbine on a moored floating semisub platform based upon WindFloat technology by Principle Power to produce hydrogen from seawater, using wind power as the energy source.

The two companies have been collaborating on the development of decentralised hydrogen production opportunities since 2019 and the new contract follows ERM Dolphyn’s award of £8.62m from the UK Government, via the Low Carbon Hydrogen Supply 2 Competition.

The demonstrator project is targeting operations in late 2025, with commercial-scale projects of over 300 MW already under development and expected for operation before the end of the decade.

EMR said that when fully deployed, at an expected 4 GW total capacity, ERM Dolphyn could potentially supply energy to heat more than 1.5m homes with no carbon emissions.

The world’s first floating offshore wind-powered hydrogen production unit was recently launched in the port of Saint-Nazaire, France.

The unit, called Sealhyfe, will, following a phase of dockside tests, connect to BW Ideol’s landmark floating offshore wind turbine operating off France’s west coast. The pilot project, led by the French renewable hydrogen producer and supplier Lhyfe, has the capacity to produce up to 400 kg of renewable green hydrogen a day, equivalent to 1 MW of power.